HELIX. 201 



12. H. sERi'cEA*, Miiller. 



H. sericea, Miill. Verm. Hist. pt. ii. p. 62; F. & H. iv. p. 71, pi. cxviii. 

 f. 5, 6. 



Body yellowish-grey, closely tubercled : mantle reddish- 

 brown, with milk-white specks : tentacles rather long, of an 

 iron-grey colour : foot rather broad and slightly raised at its 

 sides. 



Shell conical, subglobular, thin, but (by reason of its colour) 

 not usually semitransparent, scarcely glossy, grejish-white, 

 with sometimes a few slight transverse streaks of reddish- 

 brown, very finely but indistinctly striate in the line of grow' th : 

 periphery rounded, and never keeled or angidated : epidermis 

 rather thick, closely covered with rather long and very fine, 

 white, downy hairs, which are persistent and, when rubbed 

 off, leave their sockets very perceptible, giving the siuface in 

 that case a finely granulated appearance : whorls 6, extremely 

 convex, the last occupying nearly one-half of the shell : spire 

 considerably raised, but blunt: suture not very deep: mouth 

 semilunar, much broader than high, sometimes (in adult 

 specimens) furnished with a slight internal white rib, which 

 is much stronger towards the umbilicus : outer lip thin, a 

 little reflected, scarcely at all inflected above : umhilicus ex- 

 ceedingly small, but deep, having more the character of a 

 ]3erforation. L. 0*2. B. 0"3. 



Var. cornea. Shell horncolour, very thin, glossy and semi- 

 transparent ; the labial rib perceptible on the outside. 



Habitat : Mossy banks and hedges in various parts 

 of the country, from the Moray Firth district to Corn- 

 wall, as well as at Tenby and Manorbeer in Pembroke- 

 shire. I am not aware of any Irish locality. The 

 variety was found by me at Lulworth. This species 

 occurs in our upper tertiary beds. It inhabits the more 

 temperate parts of Europe ; but according to Krynicki it 

 is found in the Caucasus, and Gerstfeldt has recorded 

 it as occurring in the province of Irkutsk in Siberia. It, 

 however, seems to be local both here and abroad. It is 



* Silky. 



K D 



